Memories of Old Annie

Old Annie memories...

When I was growing up, out in the boon docks, we had no
fancy stuff...like deliveries by a milk man. We milked 
our own cows, of which there were several over the years.
I particularly remember "Annie". I don't really know how 
old Annie was, but she'd certainly been around for a long 
time.

Annie was a very docile old milk cow. She was reddish in
color. Probably had quite a bit of guernsey in her, but,
I can't say for sure. Annie's horns were a bit strange,
in my book. They curled back around and actually pressed
back into her skull, forming "handles" on her head. (I 
wish I had a picture!)

A bit of a digression. All our milk cows over the years
were pasture fed. Whatever was there was what they ate.
Well, there was an exception. Daddy planted lupine (a
legume) to replenish the crop soil with nitrogen (I think
it was).
There were two kinds of lupine...sweet and bitter. If the
milk cows ate the the bitter lupine, their milk was...ugh!
Bitter! So, if the milk cows grazed on bitter lupine, the
result was undrinkable milk.

I milked Annie many many a day. My fondest memory of milking
old Annie was the day she kicked me...I know not why.
Perhaps "fondest" is not a good word to use. Maybe "most
memorable" is better. When Daddy found out, he punished 
Annie severely. Daddy was not light on punishment...for 
anybody or anything.

Be that as it may, I will always remember "Old Annie"
as well as her day of punishment.

Brother Wayne adds: Old Annie certainly was a very docile 
cow. You could grab her curved horns and move her head side 
to side and she did not care. You could also lay and sit on 
her. She would spend time laying in front of house at edge 
of road. Did not worry about her wandering off. If she did 
cattle gaps kept her from going on the main roads. The cow 
poop on the road gave the dung beetles something to roll up 
in balls. They lay their eggs in these balls.